★ When is an off-the-record comment not off the record? A tricksy journalistic trap gets the better of Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein, backstage and off-camera, at a rally for her California colleague Barbara Boxer.

How were things going, wondered local TV reporter Randy Shandobil.

"Bad," Feinstein sighed, speaking for Democrats everywhere. But speaking, unfortunately, a little too loud: another reporter apparently overheard the remark, hastening it to the pages of the San Jose Mercury News.

If Feinstein reacted to the leak with an angry outburst laced with obscenities, that at least remains unreported.

★ Pompous commentators are fond of noting that no matter how fervid things get, there's a basic respect in American politics – especially for the office of president – that enables everyone to work harmoniously. So one wonders what they'll make of the way Frank Caprio, the Democratic candidate for Rhode Island's governorship, welcomed Barack Obama to his state this week.

"He can take his endorsement and really shove it, as far as I'm concerned," Caprio told local radio. He's miffed at the president's decision to endorse nobody in the race, because an Obama-friendly ex-Republican, Lincoln Chafee, is running as an independent.

Faced with the choice between firing back and acting imperiously untroubled, can you guess which the Obama White House chose? "Emotions are running high," a spokesman noted drily. Obama did not withdraw his invitation to Caprio to join him in a tour of a buckle-making factory. And who doesn't like to watch buckles being made?

★ With unprecedented millions sloshing around the midterm races, it's hardly surprising to learn that $3m (£1.9m) has been spent in a campaign for a place on the Illinois supreme court … except that the vicious head-to-head battle is between longtime incumbent Justice Thomas Kilbride and, well, no one. This isn't actually quite as absurd as it seems: in theory, voters could dislodge him by voting against him, despite his being the only candidate. And that would be horrifically embarrassing. But then again, there's going to be plenty of horrific embarrassment come the morning of 3 November.

★ Absurd shenanigans, meanwhile, in Nevada, where interview-shy Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle is going to new lengths to avoid what Sarah Palin calls the "lamestream media". After a Reno office visit, an Angle staffer was heard to say: "She's ready? She's coming out now?" Two women dashed out of the building – but neither was Angle. The reporters remained, until one got so desperate for the bathroom that staff let her in. Angle had vanished – as if by magic, though that's more Christine O'Donnell's domain really.